If Tomorrow Never Comes
by MerlexAddict2017
Summary: A short one-shot based on 12x09 The Sound of Silence. Leading into Come Back to Me, this story is based on what happened in 12x09 in Alex's point of view. How he deals with almost losing Meredith, but standing by her when she needed him the most.


**So this story I came up with fairly quickly. I wrote a story a while ago on what would have happened if Cristina had come to Seattle when Meredith was attacked. This little story is somewhat based on the same situation, but it's in Alex's point of view. It somewhat leads into my other story "Come Back to Me". You don't have to read the other story first, but you can (I'd love for you to, if you already haven't :) ). Some of the dialogue has been taken from that story and put into this one. I hope you enjoy!**

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As doctors we are trained to put others before ourselves. We are trained to push our emotions aside and face the world head on. We are expected to run towards disasters when everyone else is running away. We are supposed to be superhero's, able to fix the unfixable. Strong and noble. But we are also human. We have our breaking point. We can only take so much trauma, so many disasters before we break. As doctors we are supposed to be invincible and brave, but when disaster strikes, sometimes, sometimes it can become too much to bare.

For the last two years Alex has done nothing but try and protect Meredith. From the moment he had to pick her up off the floor after she told them Derek died, to the time he had to fly to San Diego after she had Ellis, he has stood by her, protecting her from any harm that came her way. Things had been fine for so long that they were starting to get comfortable again. It was almost like they had forgotten bad things could happen, except they would never forgot. If bad things never happened, George would still be alive, Izzie wouldn't have gotten cancer, Lexie wouldn't have been crushed by an airplane, Mark wouldn't have died and Derek wouldn't have been struck by a semi. Bad things were inevitable, but for Meredith they were trivial. She has experienced more loss and pain than anyone and deserves so much to be happy, but somehow disaster always seems to find her.

It was a typical day at the hospital. Nothing out of the ordinary was happening, everything was routine, early surgery, rounds, morning surgery, check on patients, the same as any other day. Except this day, this day was one Alex never wanted to happen. It was something he always feared, but also something he didn't know he feared because he never believed something like this could happen. He constantly wondered why bad things kept happening, why there are so many disasters.

Alex was in the OR, just getting ready to finish a surgery. From the corner of his eye he saw Jo walk into the OR and stand close to the door awkwardly before speaking.

"Dr. Karev, are you almost done?"

"I'll will be in just a second, what is it Wilson?"

"I'll wait." She spoke softly, almost sounding like her voice was cracking while keeping her head down and her eyes on the floor the whole time.

"Alright, I'm all done. What is it?" When he finally met her eyes, he could see the somber look she had. Her eyes glazed over with tears. She took a deep breath before responding.

"Alex, it's Meredith…" His heart stopped. It had been such a long time since he heard those words that he had almost forgotten what happens when they're spoken.

"Oh no Jo, what happened? Where is Meredith?" The eagerness in his voice was almost frightening.

"She's in the ER. She was attacked." His eyes widened as she spoke. He couldn't believe what she was saying.

"What do you mean she was attacked? I saw her here this morning, she hasn't left the hospital."

"Alex, she was attacked by a patient. I think, you need to get down there."

While still unable to actually process what was happening, Alex ran as fast as he could towards the ER. The tears in his eyes threatened to fall but he was determined to be strong. Once he reached the ER he searched the board for Meredith's name, but couldn't find it. He looked around for a minute before he could hear gasps and he knew instantly where Meredith was.

When he walked into the trauma room, it was a sight he wished he never had to see. The tears that had threatened his eyes before were now streaming down his cheeks. He had seen Meredith in a lot of bad situations, but this, this was the worst. For the first time, in a long time he really thought he was actually going to lose her. He stood at Meredith's head trying to wrap my mind around what was happening. Everyone worked on her, Dr. Webber told Maggie she couldn't work on family, when in reality, everyone in that room was Meredith's family. He inserted a chest tube, because her lung had collapsed. He tried speaking to her, asking her questions, but she wasn't responding. He begged her to answer him, to move her legs, anything, but nothing. It was then he realized that her eardrum was ruptured and she couldn't hear anything we were saying. Jackson quickly leaped into action, and as he was assessing her she began to crash. He watched them pop her jaw back into place and heard her scream in pain, and there was nothing he could do to help her. He had never felt so helpless before in my life.

They wheeled her out of the trauma room and Alex just stood there and watched. He couldn't move. He was afraid to move. Afraid that if he walked out of the room to see what was going on, by the time he got to her, she would be gone. He couldn't lose her. His whole body was overcome with emotion. His hands covered his face, trying to hide the tears flowing from his eyes, but nothing could be hidden. Not this time. When he finally started to see clearly again he could see Amelia sat on the floor of the trauma room. Alex walked towards her as their eyes met. He could feel the pain in her eyes radiate through his body. While her eyes were dry and her face was emotionless, he could feel her pain. He reached his hand out to her and helped her up off the floor. She remained silent, but her knees grew weak as she looked into his eyes. He somehow found the strength within his body to hold her up. He held her close and wrapped his arms around her, trying to bring her comfort. He wanted to speak, tell her everything was going to be alright, but he couldn't because in this situation he couldn't speak words he couldn't be sure would be true. Amelia loosened her grip and took one final look at him before walking out of the trauma room.

Alex got himself together and walked back into the ER and looked around. Everyone had gone upstairs with Meredith. He began to head that way, but found himself walking towards the attending's lounge instead. He went in and sat down alone. He tried so hard to escape his thoughts, but they were running wild through his head. He sat there alone for what seemed like hours, but in reality was only minutes when he saw Bailey run past the room. As she looked in and seen him sat in here alone she stopped in her tracks and came over.

"Alex, are you ok?" That was a pretty open ended question when she knew he definitely wasn't ok. Alex was unable to find the words to speak, so he just shrugged his shoulders. Bailey knew, just as well as he did that this was bad. She had seen Meredith face just as many disasters as he did. She knew how hard this was for him. She knew it was only him and Meredith left. She knew that they could lose her and she knew that would break him.

"Meredith Grey is strong, Alex. She is the strongest person I know. She will pull through this." Her words were not one-bit comforting. Alex nodded as Dr. Bailey spoke and tried to hide the tears that fell from his eyes.

"I'll go see where they are and I will come back and let you know." Alex nodded, as he had no words. Dr. Bailey placed her hand on his shoulder and squeezed it before leaving the room.

Alex sat back in the chair and to wrap his mind around how things like this always happen to Meredith. Why did they always happen to her? No matter how hard her tried he couldn't protect her from the bad things. Cristina left him in charge of Meredith, he was her person and he failed her. How was he going to tell Cristina? He didn't want to be the one to tell her that Meredith was in trouble once again. His heart ached at the thought that if Meredith didn't pull through that he would have to tell Cristina that she was gone. He couldn't break another person, but he also had to tell her. Cristina needed to know, because if he was about to lose her, Cristina needed to be here.

He pulled his phone out of the pocket of his lab coat and found Cristina's name under his contacts. He knew it was the middle of the night in Zurich, but he also knew if he didn't do this now, he wasn't sure he would. He dialed the number and after a few rings Alex could hear Cristina's sleepy voice on the other end.

"Evil Spawn, do you have any idea…" she was unable to finish her sentence before Alex interrupted her.

"Cristina…" she could tell just by the sound of his voice that this was not a good call. Something was wrong.

"Alex, what is it? Is it Meredith?" he didn't respond quickly enough for her liking and she became even more worried.

"Alex, please. What happened?"

"It's Meredith…" deep down Cristina already knew it was Meredith. It was always Meredith. Whenever she got a call in the middle of the night from Seattle, it was always bad. Seattle Grace Mercy Death strikes again she thinks.

"Alex, is Meredith dead?" She could hear Alex sigh heavily on the phone and his voice begin to shake.

"Oh my god, Alex. She's dead?" Her world started spinning. Tears flowed from her eyes almost instantly. Not again she thought. She couldn't lose anyone else. She couldn't take anymore. She didn't have any more goodbyes in her.

"No Cristina, she's not dead, but…" There was always a but. The but was always the scariest part.

"But what Alex? Just tell me."

"She was attacked by a patient. She's alive, but she's not doing very well. She's got so many injuries. I couldn't, I couldn't watch anymore. She has to stay alive, Cristina, I need her. I can't do this without her." Cristina could tell he was crying. The Alex she knew would never openly cry like that so she knew it must be bad.

"Alex, don't do this. You need to be with her. You are her person now and she needs you. Meredith is strong, but she needs you. Alex, I'm coming. I will be there as soon as I can." She heard him take a deep breath and assumed he was trying to compose himself before responding.

"Hurry Yang, she needs you…We both do."

"I'll be on the next flight out, and Alex…" she could tell he hesitated before responding.

"Yeah?"

"She better be alive when I get there."

Alex sat in the attending's lounge alone, in the dark, thinking how glad he was Cristina was coming and praying to god that he wouldn't take Meredith. He played over in his head how he would tell the kids, Zola and Bailey. They had already lost one parent; they couldn't lose the only one they had left. Sobs escaped his body. He cried for the children who were upstairs in daycare, unaware of what had happened. The children who had become like his own, but still needed their mother more than anything. He couldn't control the tears anymore. He couldn't take it anymore. He laid his head down on the couch he was sat on and somehow, he had managed to fall asleep.

He was woken up a short while later by a soft touch on his shoulder shaking him awake.

"Alex, Alex, you need to wake up…" Alex's eyes opened slowly at first and then suddenly after realizing what was happening. He could feel his heart begin to race as his eyes first met with Bailey's who was shaking him awake and then with Jackson's who had been stood behind her with tired somber eyes.

"Oh my god, she's dead isn't she. That's why there's two of you." Alex shot up off the couch, Bailey looked at him sympathetically and then looked at Jackson. Jackson spoke up, as he knew this was difficult for Bailey.

"Karev, calm down, she's not dead." Relief washed over Alex's face.

"She's in rough shape, but I think she'll pull through. She's intubated, her jaw is wired shut, she is still unable to hear and her leg is pretty badly banged up, but she's strong, she should pull through."

Once again Alex was unable to control his emotions. He almost collapsed onto the floor upon hearing Jackson's revelation of Meredith's injuries. Jackson grabbed ahold of him before he hit the floor and helped him back to the couch. Bailey sat next to him and held his hand in hers. Although she remained strong, this hurt her as much as Alex. She had five interns, and now it was just Alex and Meredith left and she honestly couldn't face losing another.

"Alex, Meredith is going to be ok. She has a long road ahead of her, but she will be fine." Alex breathed a sigh of relief and nodded.

"Do you want me to take you to see her?" Alex nodded and wiped the tears from his eyes before getting up off the couch with Bailey and heading towards the door.

The three of them took the elevator in silence up to the fifth floor. The closer they got to Meredith's room, the more anxious Alex became. When they finally reached Meredith's room, Alex stopped outside with window and just looked in at his friend, his person. There was a tube down her throat, her eyes were so swollen, her leg and arm were in a cast and bruises covered her whole body. Alex placed his hand on the wall to sturdy himself before entering the room. Jackson followed behind him and handed him her chart. Alex looked over the chart quickly and handed it back to Jackson. He couldn't bear to look at it any longer, not yet. He sat down next to Meredith's bed and took her hand in his. He stayed like that for hours. People would come and go, checking Meredith's vitals, but he stayed, never leaving her side. Fearing the second he left her, things would turn bad again.

He thought about going up to see the kids, but he wasn't ready to face them yet. He needed to stay with Meredith.

That night he slept right by Meredith's side. He constantly held her hand and laid his head on the edge of her bed while he slept. The continuous beeping of the monitors were calming to him. They kept his nerves in check because he knew as long as those monitors were beeping, Meredith was breathing and that was all that mattered to him. Hours had passed when he heard the door to Meredith's room creep open. When Alex looked up, his eyes met with Cristina's. Finally, he thought. He let go to Meredith's hand and got up from his chair and walked towards Cristina. The two stood there and just stared at each other before Cristina leaned in and embraced him in a hug. The two were never the hugging type, especially with each other, but right now, they both needed it.

He was so happy to see Cristina. He needed her now more than he ever had. While he was still fearful of losing Meredith, having Cristina here helped eased his fears. He felt stronger having her here. The two talked for a while and they both sat at Meredith's bedside. Neither would leave her. They were her family. They needed her now, more than ever, just as they needed her now more than ever. They needed her to pull through now more than ever.

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 **I hope you guys enjoyed this little one-shot. Please leave a review and let me know what you think! I am so in love with Alex and Meredith's friendship and how protective he is over her.**

 **I'm looking for ideas for another story. I am absolutely in love with the current storyline the show has going and I am so in love with Jolex and what appears to be a wonderful friendship forming between Meredith and Jo. If anyone has any ideas for stores they'd like, I'd love to hear them!**


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